UN rights forum urges Sri Lanka to probe killings
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, June 13 (Reuters) - The United Nations Human Rights Council called on Sri Lanka on Friday to investigate allegations of killings and disappearances and prosecute those responsible, including members of government security forces.
Western countries and activists also raised concerns about Sri Lanka's refusal to allow international human rights monitors into the country, which is embroiled in a 25-year-old civil war.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch welcomed the Council's recommendation calling on Sri Lanka to investigate and prosecute all extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary killings.
"The rate at which such killings continue is alarming," Amnesty International's Yolanda Foster told the talks. "The government must end the current climate of impunity for human rights violations."
She said no one had been prosecuted for such atrocities as the 2006 massacre of 17 mostly Tamil aid workers, which Nordic truce monitors blamed on security forces.
Canada's envoy Terry Cormier said evidence given in public hearings of Sri Lanka's Presidential Commission of Inquiry had implicated security forces in the execution-style murders. Canada urged Sri Lanka to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Rajiva Wijesingha, secretary to Sri Lanka's ministry of disaster management and human rights, told the Council that his government could only accept 45 of its 80 recommendations.
Sri Lanka was facing "increasingly brutal and vicious atrocities by the LTTE", he said, using the acronym of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who are fighting for an independent homeland for Tamils in the country's north and east.
His government is determined to "defeat the forces of terror" and cannot accept international monitors, but will combat torture and recruitment of child soldiers, he said.
Fighting between government forces and the LTTE has intensified since Colombo formally scrapped a six-year truce in January. The government has said it would only consider re-starting the peace process when the rebels agreed to lay down arms and stick to a negotiation timetable over ending the conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people.
Philip Alston, a U.N. special investigator on executions, reported last month that Sri Lanka's government was relying on paramilitary groups to maintain control in the east and that he had evidence showing they were responsible for killings.
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
GENEVA, June 13 (Reuters) - The United Nations Human Rights Council called on Sri Lanka on Friday to investigate allegations of killings and disappearances and prosecute those responsible, including members of government security forces.
Western countries and activists also raised concerns about Sri Lanka's refusal to allow international human rights monitors into the country, which is embroiled in a 25-year-old civil war.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch welcomed the Council's recommendation calling on Sri Lanka to investigate and prosecute all extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary killings.
"The rate at which such killings continue is alarming," Amnesty International's Yolanda Foster told the talks. "The government must end the current climate of impunity for human rights violations."
She said no one had been prosecuted for such atrocities as the 2006 massacre of 17 mostly Tamil aid workers, which Nordic truce monitors blamed on security forces.
Canada's envoy Terry Cormier said evidence given in public hearings of Sri Lanka's Presidential Commission of Inquiry had implicated security forces in the execution-style murders. Canada urged Sri Lanka to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Rajiva Wijesingha, secretary to Sri Lanka's ministry of disaster management and human rights, told the Council that his government could only accept 45 of its 80 recommendations.
Sri Lanka was facing "increasingly brutal and vicious atrocities by the LTTE", he said, using the acronym of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who are fighting for an independent homeland for Tamils in the country's north and east.
His government is determined to "defeat the forces of terror" and cannot accept international monitors, but will combat torture and recruitment of child soldiers, he said.
Fighting between government forces and the LTTE has intensified since Colombo formally scrapped a six-year truce in January. The government has said it would only consider re-starting the peace process when the rebels agreed to lay down arms and stick to a negotiation timetable over ending the conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people.
Philip Alston, a U.N. special investigator on executions, reported last month that Sri Lanka's government was relying on paramilitary groups to maintain control in the east and that he had evidence showing they were responsible for killings.
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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